The Angry Sports Fans Who Won’t Stop Trolling Their Teams’ Social Media Managers

Tweeting is often compared to shouting into a gorge, a la the climactic scene in Garden State — a meaningless, but nonetheless cathartic act of self-expression.

But one of the glories of Twitter is you can tell powerful figures and institutions to suck your ass, and there’s a good chance that message will actually be received.

Those frustrations rarely reach the upper echelons of that institution, though, and are instead fielded by lowly, fresh-faced social media managers who have no real decision-making power. And those social media managers are sick and tired of being trolled everyday — especially in the realm of Sports Twitter.

Even as an extremely casual sports fan, though, I can relate to the borderline psychotic behavior of diehards. The entire point of being a sports fans is forming a fake emotional connection to an organization you have no role in, and getting unreasonably happy and/or upset about their performance. (Academics might call this tribalism.)

I’ve tweeted at my hometown Chicago Bears exactly twice. The tweets occured six and a half years apart from each other, and both were about former Bears tight end Greg “Third Leg” Olsen.

Going to be truly sad if @gregolsen82 gets traded. Having only one member of the 7th floor crew on the Bears doesn't seem right.

I know why I sent those tweets — I’ve always had a love affair with cocky tight ends from the University of Miami (e.g., Jeremy Shockey and Kellen Winslow II), and was downright giddy when the Bears drafted Olsen, the latest person in that rich legacy at the time. So I was furious when the Bears traded him for effectively nothing.

But even then, I didn’t @ mention the team directly, meaning my complaints were essentially subtweets. I never anticipated the Bears actually responding to my angry fan missives, so mentioning them seemed unnecessary.

What about everyone else who does @ mention their favorite team, though? Do they really believe their message will have an effect on the front office’s decision-making?

According to Cleveland Cavaliers fan @Obey216, yes, that’s exactly why fans tweet at their favorite teams — they want their voices heard and to influence personnel decisions, and what better venue for that feedback than Twitter.

Yes, the consumers can always make a difference. The @Cavs knew the fans needed something different. They have to make sales and that's all based on the people. They really don't have a choice to be honest. We might not get everything but I'm sure it's considered.